Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Believe it or not, I had to go clear across the country to get my first few packs of 2009 cards! It's true. Last week it was mid-February, and it had been at least a week since the official release of Topps and Upper Deck. Here in Maryland, I went to my local Wal-Mart: nothing. Target: nothing. Wal-Mart in particular had a pathetic slate of offerings. A feeder box of Timeline and a few blister packs of Stadium Club. The rest was football and basketball, including blasters of 2007-2008 Topps basketball. W. T. F. So I visited some friends in San Diego over the holiday weekend, and Saturday night they took me out to get my first In-N-Out Burger (delicious, by the way. Burger and fries were both top-notch.), and we stopped at Wal-Mart on the way back to the house. FINALLY. They had a feeder box of 2009 Topps, with A-Rod's chemically-enhanced visage plastered all over it. I picked up four packs, and got no Orioles. But the first card of the first pack I opened was a Padre - Chris Young, to be exact. Neat coincidence. So here's the fourth pack of the four.

52 Marco Scutaro - Did you know he was from Venezuela?

316 Brian Stokes - Not to be confused with Brian Stokes Mitchell, though this Mets righty does have a heavenly singing voice.

68 Kyle Lohse - Seriously dude, Kyle Lohse won 15 games last year. He hadn't racked up double-digit wins in a season since 2003.

124 Reed Johnson - Had the rare honor of being heckled mercilessly by yours truly when he played right field for the Jays as a rookie in 2003. The joke was on me, as he delivered a crucial hit in Toronto's win over the Orioles. But I did get the t-shirt giveaway, so it's not all bad.

That Gibson is the regular version of the Legends cards. The Target and Wal-Mart exclusives have wither G for gold or P for Platinum in the number. I'm still waiting for a blaster to see the new box toppers.